As an employer, your job advertisement is perhaps the most important factor in finding great applicants. It needs to be designed in a way that will attract the talent that you want to add to your company. Every detail you add to your job advertisement is there for the perfect applicant to say “Hey, that’s me!” and apply.

Unfortunately, many employees perform the fatal mistake of adding requirements to a job advertisement that are not necessary for the job. Most companies think up their qualifications and add them on a whim, rather than carefully considering each quality and whether or not it is necessary for the job.

The “That’s Not Me” Approach to Job Advertisement Writing

For companies that hope to attract the right talent, carelessly requiring specific criteria from the applicant could cause a qualified applicant to look elsewhere. The most common example is when a company requires X years of experience working in a specific field, like:

• “Minimum 5 years of experience working in marketing strategies related role.”
• “3 years of experience required working with landscape design architecture.”

On paper, these may sound like good qualifications. But in practice, they don’t stand up to scrutiny. Is 2 years of experience really not enough? What about 1 year? Is there something special about 3 years (or 5 years, or 10 years) of experience that makes one candidate significantly more qualified than another?

This can be a significant problem. A candidate that has a lot of knowledge or experience, but has only worked in the field for 2 years may say “oh, that’s not me” and move on to another job, even though they were the perfect candidate for the role. Technology itself changes so often, that experience at all may not be necessary. In some cases, a recent graduate just out of college may be as qualified or more qualified than one that has worked in the field for decades.

Creating a True “Candidate Profile”

Before you create your job advertisement, you need to be willing to ask yourself these types of questions. It is not simply years of experience either. Some people throw in qualifications that are not necessary for the job, like:

• Experience with Microsoft PowerPoint
• Experience with Program X (When the Program Isn’t At Your Company)
• Graduate Degree

Certainly there are some cases where knowing this information could be useful. For example, if the candidate is going to work with PowerPoint on a weekly basis. But if they use it once a year, or they don’t use it at all, chances are they do not need to know it, and they certainly do not need “2 years of experience.”

As you decide how to write your job ad, pay very close attention to the differences between what you need, what you want, and what doesn’t matter as much as it sounds like it does. You want to attract all of the best applicants with your job ad, and the more specific and logical each qualification, the more likely you will find the applicant you desire.

For your recruitment and branding concerns you can contact Employment Office at info@employmentoffice.com.